Atlantic City: Showboat rooms to be converted to studio apartments

The Board of Directors of the Casino Reinvestment Development Authority unanimously approved a site plan for the project Tuesday. The CRDA wields planning authority within the Tourism District.

As outlined in the application filed with the CRDA, the plan would convert the 308 hotel rooms at the property at 801 Boardwalk into 312 studio apartments.

This is the second tower of the former casino hotel to undergo such a transformation, Lance Landgraf, the director of planning and development for the CRDA, told the board Tuesday.

In 2018, the CRDA approved a plan to convert 400 hotel rooms into 264 residential units.

For this project, no external upgrades or changes are planned for the exterior of the building, aside from some new signs.

According to Landgraf, the project required one variance for density. The proposal calls for far more residential units per acre than would be allowed under zoning regulations.

The Showboat is owned by investor and developer Bart Blatstein, who is involved in several high-profile projects in the city, including a water park next to Showboat.

An attorney representing the applicant said he could not comment on the project or give any details on timing for the work or the likely cost of the units.

There was no response Wednesday from representatives of Blatstein’s development company.

There were no questions from members of the CRDA board before the vote, and no comments from the public on the project at the Tuesday board meeting.

At the same meeting, the board gave site plan approval to Starboard Industries NJ LLC for a 125,000-square-foot cannabis growing and manufacturing business, taking up close to an entire block at Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard between Atlantic and Artic avenues.

There is also a parking area planned across the street for employees of the business.

When the project was originally proposed, cannabis businesses were not an approved use, Landgraf told the board. Now, the project is within the city’s Green Zone, a redevelopment area that will allow cannabis businesses in a wide swath of the city, in an effort to encourage investment.

The CRDA has already approved site plans for cannabis retail sites within the zones, and there are more proposals in the pipeline. The Starboard Industries proposal does not include a retail component but instead would be a place where cannabis would be grown indoors and cannabis products manufactured.

According to Landgraf, the applicant presented a detailed security plan, including exterior cameras that would be connected to police. According to the applicant, the site would not require additional police protection, Landgraf told the board.

There will also be an extensive air filtration system that will ensure cannabis will not be able to be smelled outside the facility.

“That was one of our biggest concerns in a downtown environment,” Landgraf said.

The building was designed by SOSH Architects of Atlantic City. As part of the application process, architect Tom Sykes said at least two of the outside walls of the building would include murals, with the subject of those murals to be determined in cooperation with the city, Landgraf said.

By Bill Barlow